Checking into the Clinique

We have to check in at the Clinique St Roch by 1730hrs today. We're taken into the office in the reception area where we hand over a copy of my ID, an attestation from the CPAM and a copy of my mutuelle. We requested a few months ago a shared room (I like to chat to another mum when I'm in hospital) and a telephone line - I'm not bothered about having a TV rental. I'm allocated my room number. The lady declared us very easy, as 99pc of people want single rooms and there aren't enough to go around.... The phone line rental is Euro4 a day... plus cost of calls.

Then we are taken to the birthing room, where I have a urine test, a blood test, a visit from the anesthetist and at least 5 forms filled out by the mid-wife.The baby is monitored during all of this.

I'm given a bottle of antiseptic soap and some gauze strips (to wash myself all over tonight and then again tomorrow morning. I have to be up and showered tomorrow by 7.30am. (at this point I become rather confused as she tells me to use the gauze strips to wash myself as my own flannel will become yellow if I use it... at this point I'm worried I'm going to turn yellow all over and does she really mean I have to wash my hair in this stuff?)

Into the room and unpacked by 9pm - and they let me have some dinner.. which I didn't check until too late and then I realise they've given me fish - yuck - so I just eat the veg and pud and then feel absolutely famished all night - especially as I'm very pregnant and feel like I could eat a horse at any moment.

I'm sharing a room with a lady who had her baby boy by c-section that morning.. she's having problems with breast feeding and she's getting lots of help. All for tonight.

Yet More from the CPAM

So we've got a letter from the CPAM to do with my conge maternite payments... they now want my attestation de salaire as at 25th August (my last day of work) and the last year's worth of salary slips...

The bit of paper they've sent me actually says attestation de salaire on it... is it that they want back? and it's signed by my boss already...

There are spaces on it for my signature and that of the daddy for the conge paternite... it's all as clear as mud really... just waiting for my boss to get back to me and hopefully he can explain it all...

• Have just started to pack my bag for the hospital!

CPAM yet again...

So today it's a letter from the Caisse Maladie asking for a photo for my new carte vitale (this is a new thing and the chemist in the village already warned me this would happen...) and they also want a copy of my ID to compare it with...

I dig around and find an old-ish photo that would do - can't face a trek out in this heat (29c) to spend €4 in a photo booth...

More from CPAM

Today we receive an attestation to say that again, I am actually covered 100pc by the Caisse Maladie until 12 days after the birth.... youpi, French paperwork, we are getting there... nothing about my new carte vitale though.

CPAM

So today we receive a huge envelope from the Caisse Maladie - with my new married name, new social security number and new address - aha - we're getting somewhere then.

It was actually a letter saying thank you for the declaration de grossesse that I sent back when I was something like 12 weeks pregnant - along with 2 booklets on how to stop smoking, one on how to avoid domestic accidents with my new baby and a larger one of 'everything to do with having a child up to 3 years old'.

Moving house paperwork nightmares

After letting the www.caf.fr and the Caisse Maladie know that we have moved house - we get the surprises in the post.

The Caisse Allocations Familiale give you child benefit money / money towards your rent or mortgage if you are on a low income and a prime de naissance 2 months before you are due to give birth - so it's good to keep in with them. On discovering we'd moved house they decided we obviously didn't need more money so we got a letter saying please send back the last Euro213 we sent you - no explanation no nothing... so down to the CAF I traipse and come back with 5 sheets of paper to fill in with our present family situation and 2 bits of paper for the mortgage bank to fill in about our house - so it does look like we can have a little money still - watch this space.

The CPAM Maladie people just sent us an attestation saying that hubby and kiddy number 1 are still valid for their medical insurance, but I am 'a justifier' - bizarre as we've done nothing but move house (oh yes and I married him too). I also find out that the chip in my green carte vitale has died too and needs looking at (probably overwork).

To date I've been covered under my husband to be's (now husband's) social security number just because I live with him - I have been salaried since January 2007 but never changed over my medical insurance to my own - I just never thought it would make a difference... UNTIL you need to claim conge maternite money ... (maternity benefit).

So I need now to get the following papers together:

My Carte vitale
My attestation de droit (from the green borne in the CPAM office?)
Livret de famille (marriage certificate with kids born on it)
Carte de sejour (or passport)
Demande de rattachement a la CPAM (a form they've given me to fill in)
A medicine traitant form to register with a doctor (I've done this before but seems I have to do it again...)
First and last wage slips
The obligatory EDF electric bill (proof of address - I swear you could travel the world on one of these...)
A RIB (direct debit form from the bank)
.. And a partridge in a pear tree!

The Amnio...

Up at 6am to leave home at 7am (the clinique is awful to get to at rush hour and we can't very well go on the tram today) - the journey finally only takes 35 mins and thankfully we are allowed to park in the clinique's car park.

We are told to be there at 8am for our 8.15am appointment - 15 minutes to queue and do the paperwork. The ask for an attestation from the CPAM (no one told us to take one...) then she saw my carte vitale and said it would be OK... but then the carte vitale wasn't up to date. My husband runs downstairs to the 'borne' to update it - he then runs 4 flights upstairs again (he didn't want to wait for the lift) and we find the bloomin' machine didn't update it.. she promises to hold the papers as long as we bring in an attestation within the week.... She takes a signed authorisation form to saw we agree to the procedure - then Euro50 from us and another CPAM brown form for the actual lab. work required (no idea how much that is) and the carte vitale is to pay for our day room for after the procedure.

We then go back down 4 flights in the lift to the radiology department and are called within a couple of minutes. My husband isn't allowed into the room (apparently too many husbands faint) - my gyne is there and and the radiologist who will scan my tummy at all times.

To cut a long story short - it is over in minutes - it sounds an awful procedure but even without any pain relief - I can actually say it was more painful to have an injection in your arm... it really wasn't that bad.

Then I find that my legs have turned to jelly and I can hardly waddle to the waiting room again. 2 minutes later we are taken in the lift to the day rooms on the 4th floor for our 2 hours of lying down and a cup of tea and a baguette and jam breakfast.

Enroute in the lift with my husband, a nurse and a porter - I burst into tears and then continued to cry for another hour... all the stress of waiting for it I suppose.. but really in the end it wasn't so bad.

Somebody comes into the bed next to me... and then she bursts into tears... obviously it's catching...

We're told by the gyne that I'm meant to do absolutely nothing for 48 hrs... sounds bliss. The gyne will call me in 10 days with the results.

Back to the gyne on 5th May for a routine check up

CPAM Form - nearly 12 weeks

Got a green form back from the Caisse Maladie today - one that we have to fill in and return once the baby is born along with the birth certificate.

It came with a small booklet on everything about babies from now to 3 yrs... a few leaflets on how to stop smoking too... and a few coupons to fill in to get free goodies.

Declaration de Grossesse

I went back to the GP today - with my blood test results in hand - I want to get my paperwork in order so that the Caisse Maladie (CPAM) and CAF (child benefit people) are all informed.

This paper needs to be completed and sent off before the 14 week of pregnancy.

I read on www.magicmaman.fr that the maternity leave minimum in France is 6 weeks before the birth and 10 weeks after - all of which is paid as your full salary, from the social security instead of from your company.

I also nip into the Laboratoire to check on what I need to do for my next blood tests as I am not immune to Toxoplasmosis - I have to be tested each month for this. I'm given a little bottle for the urine test (no eating before) and have to do a blood test too, which I can eat before...

Just to confirm it

I go to our GP today to get a real test done. I'm given a prescription and told to go to the laboratoire d'analysis next door (very handy) straight away as I don't have to have 'starved' myself before this test.

I'm tested for everything from AIDS, to Hep. C, Hep B, & toxoplasmosis. I hand over my Carte Vitale and don't have to pay anything - the laboratoire will do all the claiming of monies directly from the CPAM and my mutuelle

3 years ago when I had this test it was €190.00
Visit to the GP €22.00